PRESS RELEASE OF CONSUMER PRICE INDEX ON BASE 2024=100 FOR MARCH, 2026

Posted On: 13 APR 2026 4:00PM by PIB Delhi Key Statistics National Level Indices Year-on-year inflation rate based on All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) with base year 2024 for the month of March, 2026 over March, 2025 is 3.40%(Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 3.63% and 3.11%, respectively. March, 2026 (Provisional) February, 2026 (Final) Rural Urban Combined Rural Urban Combined Inflation (%) CPI (General) 3.63 3.11 3.40 3.37 3.02 3.21 CFPI 3.96 3.71 3.87 3.46 3.48 3.47 Index CPI (General) 105.01 104.62 104.84 104.74 104.36 104.57 CFPI 104.01 104.38 104.14 103.79 104.04 103.88 Food Inflation : - Year-on-year inflation rate based on All India Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for the month of March , 2026 over March , 2025 is 3.87% (Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 3.96% and 3.71%, respectively. Housing Inflation : - Year-on-year Housing inflation rate for the month of March, 2026 is 2.11% (Provisional) and the corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 2.54% and 1.95%, respectively. At National level, division wise inflation for the month of March, 2026 in the Combined sector may be seen from the graph below- Top 5 key items with low inflation at All India combined level in March, 2026 are given in table below: S.No. Item Weight Inflation (%) February, 2026 Inflation (%) March, 2026 1 Onion 0.7006 -28.20 -27.76 2 Potato 0.7549 -18.47 -18.98 3 Garlic 0.3738 -31.10 -10.18 4 Arhar, Tur 0.5333 -16.00 -9.56 5 Peas, chickpeas 0.0516 -8.26 -7.87 Top 5 key items with high inflation at All India combined level in March, 2026 are given in table below: S.No. Item Weight Inflation (%) February, 2026 Inflation (%) March, 2026 1 Silver Jewellery 0.3127 160.88 148.61 2 Gold/Diamond/Platinum Jewellery 0.6230 48.17 45.92 3 Coconut: copra 0.0854 46.16 45.52 4 Tomato 0.4961 45.18 35.99 5 Cauliflower 0.2330 43.76 34.11 State level Indices Top five States (having more than 50 lakhs population as per Census 2011) with highest inflation in March, 2026 are given below- February 2026 (Final) figures for CPI base 2024=100 All India CPI, CFPI and corresponding inflation rates for the month of February 2026 (Final) with base year 2024 are given as follows- February , 2026 (Final) at Base 2024=100 Rural Urban Combined Inflation (%) CPI (General) 3.37 3.02 3.21 CFPI 3.46 3.48 3.47 Index CPI (General) 104.74 104.36 104.57 CFPI 103.79 104.04 103.88 Response Rate - Real time price data are collected from selected 1407 urban Markets (including online markets) and 1465 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of March, 2026, prices were collected from 100% rural and urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 99.93% for rural markets and 100% for urban markets. CPI for April 2026 will be released on 12th May, 2026 (Tuesday) or the next working day in case of 12th being a holiday. State and Item wise indices for March 2026 may be downloaded from eSankhyiki portal of MoSPI- https://esankhyiki.mospi.gov.in/ State-level item indices, available on the portal, should be interpreted cautiously in view of thin samples of price used for index compilation in some of the cases. Indices at all levels and inflation rates are compiled using the actual index values. However, the indices published are rounded to two decimal places. Therefore, higher-level indices, if calculated from the published indices may not match exactly. IV. Annexures Annexure Title I All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) division wise indices and inflation for March, 2026 (Provisional) II All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) group wise indices and inflation for March, 2026 (Provisional) III State wise general index and inflation in March, 2026 (Provisional) IV All India Combined (General) level index and inflation Annexure- I All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) division wise indices and inflation for March, 2026 (Provisional) Division code Division name Index Inflation Rural Urban Comb. Rural Urban Comb. 01 Food and beverages 104.00 104.31 104.12 3.81 3.53 3.71 02 Paan, tobacco and intoxicants 106.30 106.41 106.33 4.15 4.42 4.23 03 Clothing and footwear 107.12 105.19 106.39 3.17 2.06 2.75 04 Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels 103.07 102.46 102.69 2.14 1.87 1.97 05 Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance 103.53 103.03 103.32 1.60 1.11 1.39 06 Health 103.75 104.43 104.01 1.65 1.92 1.75 07 Transport 100.76